Tech companies often move in the fast lane. Uber is zipping past all of them.

Now valued at more than $64 billion, the ride-hail company now has a paper valuation greater than household names Kraft Foods, Delta Airlines, General Mills, CBS, Kellogg and many others.

On paper, Uber is now more valuable than an estimated 72 percent of the companies on the Fortune 500.

Launched in 2010 in San Francisco, the ride-hail firm is creating tremendous revenue and causing havoc in the taxi-limo industry.

But Uber CEO Travis Kalanick understands that with great resources comes great responsibility to give back.

One of the causes Uber has embraced is drunk driving, with an estimated 300,000 people taking to the road under the influence every day.

Uber teamed with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to conduct a study and issue a report that shows people make better choices when they have more transportation options such as Uber and Lyft.

In California, Uber’s home state and largest market, drunk-driving crashes fell by 60 per month among drivers under 30 in the markets where Uber operates following the launch of uberX. That’s an estimated total of 1,800 crashes prevented since July 2012.

• 78% of all respondents to a survey agreed that friends are less likely to drive drunk since the arrival of ridesharing services like Uber to their city.
• Nearly everyone surveyed — 93% — would recommend their friends take Uber instead of driving if they’d been drinking alcohol.

The report found ridesharing is having a significant impact across America’s cities, providing people with smarter alternatives to getting behind the wheel if their plans include alcohol.

In Miami, Uber ridership is peaking at the same hour that historically has been the worst for drunk driving. In Pittsburgh, demand for Uber spikes at closing time for bars. In Chicago, three-fourths of Uber trips on New Year’s Eve were requested within ⅛ mile of establishments with liquor licenses.

Another program Uber has embraced is the AMBER Alert Program, which reaches out to find missing children.

“As a data-driven company, we understand the power of information for communities. Since day one, our mission has been to connect people with reliable rides through the use of data and technology. As our footprint has grown throughout the years, so has our ability to use the Uber network in different ways,” said Kalanick.

“Starting today and in partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), Uber driver-partners in over 180 cities across the U.S. will begin to receive time-sensitive and critical AMBER Alerts specific to their region. When an AMBER Alert is issued, driver-partners will immediately receive geographically targeted information that may help to locate and recover a missing child,” he said at an October event.

Robert Hoever, director of special program for NCMEC, said Uber’s footprint will be extremely beneficial to the program.

“The AMBER Alert program’s success is built on the ability to reach the right people at the right time with these potentially life-saving messages. Uber’s presence in communities all across the country will be an incredible asset and we are proud to team up with Uber to increase the reach of the AMBER Alert program and help bring more missing children home safely,” he said.

AMBER Alerts are issued by law enforcement and distributed through broadcasters and transportation agencies. They are also sent to NCMEC, which redistributes the alerts, through the AMBER Alert Secondary Distribution Program, to a network of companies and organizations that use all available technology to expand the reach of the Alerts. These broadcasts let law enforcement use the eyes and ears of the public to help quickly locate an abducted child. The U.S. Department of Justice coordinates the AMBER Alert program on a national basis.

A third example of Uber philanthropy is a $5.5 million endowment to Carnegie Mellon University to support a robotics faculty chair as well as three fellowships at the university.

“Carnegie Mellon University has proven the power of curiosity many times over with its groundbreaking research in computer science and robotics: research that has made self-driving cars possible. And we’re passionate about our mission to make transportation as reliable as running water, for everyone everywhere. So while it’s still the early days in our partnership, the potential to improve transportation — from safer cars to smarter cities — is immense,” said CMU’s Allen Newell, one of the founding fathers of computer science at the school.